As a young reporter in her 20s at The Wall Street Journal, Jessica Lessin developed a reputation for her dogged coverage of tech and media companies. Her inside story about the legal battle between media titans John Malone and Barry Diller was a front-page sensation. Kara Swisher called her “always deft” while Peter Kafka wrote of how she “owned the IAC beat so thoroughly” that her work became part of the court case.

Martin Peers, who was her editor at the time, said he was impressed by her ability to hold her own with these moguls — “guys like Diller can be pretty intimidating“ — and her insistence on chasing Apple’s plans to get into the TV business. “She kept badgering us to stay on the Apple TV story,” he says. “I was a bit skeptical about the amount of time to spend on it. Jessica was utterly relentless about calling me.”